Dear Rehoboth,

Last week we took a little detour out of the farewell discourse in John to trouble the waters, but this week, we will get back on track and finish off the prayer of Jesus in chapter 17. I think one of the more striking parts of this passage is to remember the context. Jesus has not yet entered the garden of Gethsemane. He will right after this chapter. But, for now, he is praying on the edge of the garden. We know that this is not a garden of life like in Genesis but rather a garden of this world. A garden of death, and selfishness and the place in which Jesus begins his final walk to the cross. It is on the edge of this garden that we hear these words from Jesus. He is praying here. And notice what he is praying for. On the brink of death, in the face of betrayal, and rejection, Jesus chooses not to pray for himself. Rather he prays for you and me. We are the ones who will come to believe. I don’t know what it is, but it is hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that Jesus is praying for me. I understand that Jesus heals and is listening to my prayers, but he is also praying for me. Jesus has been praying for us for the last 2000 years. We were on his mind and in his heart from the very beginning. I find great comfort in that. Jesus cares so much about me that when his life was in danger, he was praying for you and me to have faith. That’s a message we need to hear more often. 

So, Jesus is praying for us, but what does he actually pray about. Well, the first thing he prays about is for us to all be “one.” I almost wished he prayed that we would never sin, that might be easier for us in this world. Can you even imagine what it would look like for us all to be one? I have trouble seeing it because our rhetoric is meant to break us into groups. We talk about “those people,” or we talk about what “millennials” are doing. We define people in so many ways that I think it makes it impossible for us even to imagine what it would look like to be one with people. And not one as being all the same and having the same views and same cultures but being one in our aims and goals for this world. Who in this world are you not willing to be one with? Jesus wants us to be one, and yet we try to keep everyone in their boxes. 

I love when Jesus uses the word “all.” It’s a simple word, and I think that’s the beauty of it. There isn’t any nuisance to the word. You cant give me 99% and say I gave it my all. You cant serve 50 out of the 52 guests and say you fed all the guests. One of the weirdest phrases is “all but.” For example, we served all but 2 of the guests. Congrats but those two guests aren’t proud of you. We all are one except… You can fill in the blank. To love all means no qualifiers. It means all. Have you seen those bumper stickers “Y’all means everyone?” You cant love all except because Christ loved all. 

The prayer goes on to say that we can know God through Christ and Christ through his followers so if you do some quick math (if a=b and b=c then c=a) people can learn about God through us. When we love all except we are showing people that God loves all except. I’m not sure we like to think in this way. We don’t like to think that the things we say and do have that much effect but if what we do reveals God to the world we need to stop and ponder what are we revealing to the world. Are we revealing an “all but” God to the world? Are we revealing a God that has conditional love? These are hard questions for us to ponder. I’m not sure what the answer is but I know I will find some good with bad as we do with everything but if we remember that Jesus’s prayer is for us to be one I think we can reveal a God that we truly believe in. 

Thank you for letting me ramble this morning. And I truly mean it, if you have any thoughts on this scripture please let me know I would love to hear from you. I hope you have a wonderful week and can join us on Sunday to worship Christ as one.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Lee